Opting Out
by Elenko
Summary: Alex and Ashley are two sister trying to survive in a world gone crazy. All they have are each other, but what happens if the sole reason for living disappears and is believed to be dead? Will there be enough reasons left not to opt out from a world that wishes nothing but to chew the flesh from your bones? One of them will find out in the near future.


She would be lying if she said she wasn't afraid. Afraid of the unknown and more so of the known. The light drizzle of rain kept her from producing any coherent thoughts. No matter where she turned, the sound of the rain kept invading her mind. 10 days into this whole mess and no one knew a single thing what was going on. Except that the dead was walking. And the fact they were also hunting the living, aiming to eat the flesh of their living bodies. It was beyond horrible. It was so unimaginable that no one had ever thought of the possibility. They had vampires, why not the dead coming back to life?

The caravan she had been with had come to an end on the highway. Too many cars were blocking the route out. And frankly, none of them felt like pushing thousands of cars away. They hadn't the time nor the patience to do so. Instead several men had gone out to search for a place to settle down out in the woods. She had been wanting to leave; find another place to settle down that was not in the midst of thick forest. But alas her voice was drowned out by the voices of men wanting to be the alpha male. Instead of protesting she had gone to sit in the car she had come with, waiting on her sister to get back. As long as they had each other, it would be fine. It would be fine, or so she kept on repeating to herself long after her sister joined her in the small Audi.

"Hey," her sister had said when she popped into the driver's seat. "Do you think there's any music in the car stereo?" It was phrased like a question, but her nimble fingers had already begun trying to find the correct button to switch the thing on. "I'd rather you didn't put any on, saving the battery and whatnot."

A pout was visible on her sister's almost childlike face. "You're no fun Alex," her sister whined before resting her hands on the steering wheel. "I just wish we could get a move on, you know?" Alex simply stole a glance at her before continuing her staring game with the outside. "Sheesh, you're talkative". A sigh was heard from her left, before she could respond the car door opened and her sister was gone. It hadn't been her intention to make her leave, but she had always had a bad habit of shutting people out of her life.

During some point she must have fallen asleep. She was woken by the screams echoing between the cars. Sitting up like she had been burned, her disoriented mind couldn't quite fathom what was happening. She looked around only to realize Ashley was not in the car. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck", she repeated for herself in the car as she tried to peer out into the darkness. She would not leave without her sister. She would not. But if those dead people were attacking them, what choice did she have?

She jumped when one of them hit the window next to her. It bashed its hands against the window, smearing blood all over it. Her blood had frozen in her veins. It was impossible for her to move, let alone think. When she heard the car door open she was saying her prayers. Relief watched over her as she saw her sister, alive, although very bloody. The car was started and put in reverse, before managing to make a u-turn. "Fuck," her sister said while grabbing the steering wheel. Her knuckles losing color quickly.

"What the hell happened?!" Alex exclaimed trying to calm herself down. Her fingers were trembling, fuck, both of her hands were. "I don't fucking know," Ashley said while tears were streaming down her cheeks, blending with the blood on them. "I was enjoying coffee by the other cars when a walker came up," she revealed as she tried to keep back a sob. "One of the dudes from the forest tried to keep him from us, but the god damn thing took a fucking bite from his arm."

Ashley let go of the steering wheel with one hand briefly to wipe away her tears. "How did you get so much blood on you?" Alex asked quietly from her spot. "A walker bit Catherine in the neck," she replied. "Bit right through her jugular vein. It just.. sprayed on me. I mean, do they do that? Isn't it only in movies."

It was a brief period of silence before Ashley continued, "more walkers came from all over. I.. put the other women in front of me, using them as shields." The pain and shame was obvious in her voice, yet Alex couldn't make herself think any less of her sister. How could she? At this moment she was happy they were both alright. They were alive, if only for a day longer. "God, I'm sorry," Alex whispered from her seat. Tears were threatening to spill over, "I'm so sorry."

The silence in the car was not as pressing as they'd been expecting it to be. Both of them had things to think about. People they needed to say goodbye to in their minds. Apologizes they needed to make. One thing Alex was sure of, was that despite the necessity of the situation, others would not see it as such. They'd been part of the group for a decent amount of time. Enough to form bonds and friendship, for her sister to throw away the life of both women and children to get away – that wouldn't sit well with any other group they came across.

"Let's not say anything about this," Alex croaked out after an hour's worth of silence. "I don't blame you, but others? They wouldn't want you to risk the well-being of their loved ones."

Ashley said nothing, just offered her a curt nod before once again settling into the silence they'd gotten used to. It wasn't until Alex noticed Ashley's head was beginning to fall she suggested they'd pull over somewhere. Anywhere. The only word to describe the feelings they all felt when they drove down a small path in the middle of the woods was fear.

They had nowhere to go. Nowhere to stay. Nowhere safe. Sighing, Alex put herself into a better position before rolling down the window. The blood from the walker was disturbing her. A reminder of what had happened wasn't a dream, or a nightmare. The fresh air that filled the car was enough to make Ashley a bit more sober. She was struggling against sleep. Ironically, considering her previous insomnia during her "normal" life.

Eventually the car came to a stop near a lake. It was embarrassing for Alex to admit, but she couldn't drive. The last group they'd been with had been looking at her strangely. A 30-year old woman who couldn't drive at all when her 15-year old sister was better than most men. It was unheard of, and considered weird. As if that was the strangest thing that could happen in this fucked up world. "You can go to sleep, Ash." Her sister nodded before pulling the chair back down so she could sleep somewhat more comfortable.

The fear settled into the pit of her stomach. Uncertainty. Fear, of both the living and the dead. She pulled the window up, watching her beautiful sister sleep. It was unfair, to both of them. Mostly towards her sister, though. Ashley shouldn't have been born into a world where everything goes to shit around them. Where the very foundation of what makes us human is being torn away by the reincarnation of the ones we once loved.

Alex tried to keep her eyes open, she truly did. It would seem this night had taken everything they once thought they had, away from them again. She didn't fight sleep the next time the wave of sleep hit her. Instead, she allowed herself to succumb to it, and for once, she couldn't sleep peacefully. A dream of her sister bashing a kid's brain in haunted her mind. It would seem that even in sleep, fear wouldn't let go. A fear that was beginning to change into reality.

* * *

She would be lying if she said the night had been peaceful. The nightmares had woken her up more times than she could count. They always changed. Some were of her sister; dead or alive. It didn't matter, the consensus was that she was no longer the person she was in the waking world. Or that was what Alex kept telling herself.

The last time she had woken up, the sun had begun to rise. It was a beautiful scenery that was spoiled by the realization they couldn't stay here. When she had sat up properly, the cracking sound in her back and neck reminded her of how she was never sleeping in a car again. It took her a few minutes to get an idea of where she was, and more importantly, where her sister was not. Panic set in as she begun frantically looking around.

No sign of her. Alex forced herself to breathe deeply. No panicking. Figuring she wouldn't find her sister while sitting in the car, she opened the car door and stepped outside on the dew riddled grass. A weapon. She needed a weapon. During the very beginning of the outbreak she had been without a weapon, and she had almost paid the price. This time around she looked around for something to use to smash the brains in, seemingly the only way to stop the onslaught of them.

Instead of panicking and running into the woods, she simply looked around for a weapon of some sort. There were none that seemed to meet all of her requirements, so she settled for a thick stick on the outskirts of the forest. Better than nothing. Besides, if they got their hands on a knife, sharpening the edges of the sticks would make for a good weapon. At least a quiet one. The sounds seem to attract the bastards along with the smell of blood. It had been painstakingly obvious as some people on the block had accidentally started the car alarms on the cars. All hell broke lose then and neither of them had made a habit of staying.

She knew it was bad to assume anything, but for now she assumed her sister was out taking a wee. They had been on the run for a good few hours, and her bladder was starting to fill up rather quickly as well. Alex felt a lot more comfortable and safe with something to defend herself against any walkers. Figuring she might take watch, she climbed onto the roof of the Audi. It was a very serene surrounding, a nice spot for children to come and take a swim she figured. Too bad the few children that are alive would probably not stay that way too long. Not that adults had too much of a chance anyway.

Around an hour later and her sister had yet to return. By now she was beginning to worry. Taking a pee does not take an hour, even for a girl. The area was serene but for how long? Soon the living dead would come, or perhaps she was just being paranoid. Her sister could have just gotten lost, she had no sense of direction. "For fuck's sake," Alex muttered before looking around to see where her sister might have gone off to. The only place where it seemed like someone had walked off to was to the right. Towards the way they came.

"Fuck," she said before she started walking towards the direction where she assumed her sister had gone off to. "Can't bloody stay put one minute," she muttered to herself.

She still held the wooden stick in her hands. In her heart she knew she probably could fend off one of those cannibalistic monsters. On the other hand, she might just end up making it more annoyed than anything else.

The forest was quiet, almost as if it was coiled up and waiting to spring out surprises to whoever had the misfortune to trip on the wire holding everything in place. She was glad the sun was still shining, but the lack of bird song distressed her. One thing she had noticed in her 30 years of living was that when animals fled, whatever they fled from was either human or worse than humans. At least that was what she had concluded from watching Animal Planet in her flat.

There was no denying that something was wrong, though. Everything was eerily quiet. When she stepped on the wrong patches she could almost feel herself tense up as the sticks snapped under her feet. It would be a lie to say she wasn't torn to scream out to her sister and to keep quiet and find her without drawing any attention to herself.

As of now she only feared the monsters, but she knew that she might as well run into assholes. The risk was slim, but with her unlucky tendencies it seemed plausible enough.

So instead of rushing headlong into danger, she walked as quietly as she could. She was never observant as a person, but the heightened possibility her sister could be chewed on at that very moment seemed to sharpen her senses enough to deduce that someone indeed had been through this area. It wasn't until she saw blood on one of the branches and on the forest-bed her heart sped up.

She had to push the nauseated feeling of seeing blood back into her subconscious, lest she would throw up. Or if she was really, unlucky faint. Instead she forced herself to get a hold of herself. It wasn't without hesitation she followed the blood drops towards center of the woods. It took her some time until she heard the familiar growling she had come to associate with the walking dead.

Immediately at the sound she hid behind a tree. She knew full well it wasn't going to protect her in the long run, but at that moment she was way to scared to do anything. She had frozen by the possibility of being face-to-face with a creature like that. Swallowing, she allowed herself a quick peek between the bushes and under vegetation. What she saw made her hands shake with fear and her blood run cold.

Up in the tree was Ashley, blood was streaming down her arm and dripping down to the ground below. What was even more terrifying was the three creatures that stood and clawed at the tree trunk. There lazy scratching would have been amusing had it not been her sister up in the tree. Her wounded sister. "Fuck", Alex thought to herself before wrecking her mind with a plan. Nothing came to mind and she hit her forehead a few times before once again peeking over to assess the situation.

"Oh god", she moaned as she saw yet another dead creature coming towards the trunk. In a brief moment of weakness she considered taking off, leaving her sister to her own fate. The mere thought of it made her even more sick with herself than any undead creature could ever do. No one gets left behind, unless they have a bullet in their head. Perhaps it was that thought that made her stand up and scream at them. Although her sister would most likely call it a case of heroic brain retardation. Ashley always had a way with words.

She could see the brief panic her sister flashed. They both knew it. It was one thing to die yourself, another to watch your sole relative get eaten. "Get to the car!" Alex screamed. "I'll lead them away or something, just.. get to the fucking car".

With that message she started running. The dead bitches were slow but they didn't tire. They didn't stop. They just ate and ran, never stopping. Alex was unsure how long she ran until she literally fell down on her knees. She looked back and saw close to 20 things running after her. Looking forward, she saw a road. And a fence.

She wasn't stupid to believe it would hold for them, and if they had enough brains left they would climb over. But she hoped it would slow them down. With trembling legs she stood up, moving her legs forward. Her legs ached. Her arms hurt and her lungs felt like they were on fire. She knew she should have gone to that aerobic class in NYC. That might have kept her alive a bit longer.

Eventually she got to the road. She stood there, watching the small herd move with surprising speed towards her. During some part of the run, she had dropped the wooden stick. She was completely defenseless against the oncoming herd. It wasn't until they were 20 feet away she heard the rumbling of a car engine. She looked quickly to the right to find a car getting closer. Around the same time she heard the wood fence crack due to the weight of the undead.


End file.
